AOL Proudly Releases Massive Amounts of Private Data — Further Update: Sometime after 7 pm the download link went down as well, but there is at least one mirror site. AOL is in damage control mode - the fact that they took the data down shows that someone there had the sense to realize …

AOL Search Data Shows Users Planning to commit Murder. — http://research.aol.com released a list of 20 million + searches by 500,000 AOL users. Contained in this list are social security numbers, credit cards and other personal information. There are some truly scary things in this database.

AOL Releases Search Logs from 500,000 Users — AOL just released the logs of all searches done by 500,000 of their users over the course of three months earlier this year. That means that if you happened to be randomly chosen as one of these users, everything you searched for from March to May …

AOL Just Did the Unthinkable - Boycott AOL? — Thank you, Google for resisting the DOJ's effort to obtain user search data. You put up a good fight to protect our privacy, and you won. Too bad it was all in vain. — AOL, in blatant violation of its users privacy just released the log …

Ex-Microsoft blogger starts on a new media adventure — If the public perception of Microsoft has softened recently, Robert Scoble may be partially responsible. — Over the past three years, Scoble has gained fame as the ``Microsoft blogger,'' a Microsoft employee writing online about Microsoft and its products.

Wordpress.com Rising: Stats After 8 Months — Wordpress.com, a free, hosted blog service, turns eight months old this month. CEO Toni Schneider shared some of the current stats of the service with me over the weekend at a conference they held in San Francisco.

State of the Blogosphere, August 2006 — Three months have passed since my last State of the Blogosphere report, so time for an update on the numbers. For those of you who just want the most interesting tidbits, I've tried something new this time sround - I've put in boldface the most significant information.

Investors, Including Bono, Buy a Piece of Forbes — SINCE the death in 1990 of the legendary publisher Malcolm S. Forbes, his four sons and a daughter have sold his cherished assets here and there — his private jet, the collection of Fabergé eggs, a handwritten copy of Lincoln's last address.

Forbes Sells "Significant Minority Stake" To Elevation Partners; Could Be Up To 40% For $250M-300M So the rumors about Forbes trying to sell a stake in the company were true: The Forbes family has formed a new company, Forbes Media, which includes the 89-year-old Forbes magazine …

Video clips by Viacom on Google — NEW YORK Google has struck a deal to allow Web site owners to put video clips from Viacom, including "SpongeBob SquarePants" and MTV's "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County," on their pages. The clips will be accompanied by advertising, with Viacom …

MyWSJ Launches; Personalized News For Subs Only — It's the latest online news accessory — the personalized pages of yesteryear reimagined with the tools of today. The NYT's MyTimes.com beta has been rolling out slowly over the past few weeks, My USA Today News beta is up and this past week beta invites started to arrive for MyWSJ.

Blackberry a Juicy Hacker Target — LAS VEGAS — A computer security researcher says he's found an unexpected new path into company networks: the Blackberry. — Jesse D'Aguanno, a consultant with Praetorian Global, has developed a hacking program that exploits the trust relationship between …

Why Murdoch Won't buy YouTube — Ever since YouTube's CEO Chad Hurley participated in Herb Allen's annual Sun Valley media mogulfest, there has been much speculation about who will acquire the young online video phenom. If the chatter in the blogosphere is a reliable indicator, many believe it will be Rupert Murdoch.